Leigh Chalker (00:00:52):
Oh well let me finish this intro and I might give you a snippet into it. Man, it’s unbelievable. So hang on. So for anyone out there that hasn’t watched, it’s just six prompting questions, words which are who, what, where, when, how and why. Just to gin wag really and see where it all takes us. Feel free to make comments. They pop up on the screen and anyone’s got any questions for Daniel then? Yeah, I’m sure he’ll be happy to answer all of those things. So yeah mate, I’ll tell you briefly day was a wonderful day. I met a family member that I’d never met before, so it was a win-win. So very happy and happy to be here and happy to be chatting to you buddy. So

Daniel Best (00:01:39):
Excellent.

Leigh Chalker (00:01:39):
Mr. Best, who? Let’s start there mate. Who

Daniel Best (00:01:45):
More I’m me.

Leigh Chalker (00:01:47):
Well we know you.

Daniel Best (00:01:49):
I’m me <laugh>. That’s a very broad question. It

Leigh Chalker (00:01:54):
Certainly is, mate. It could go into the realms of existentialism or very simply a name. It’s like this is where it goes man.

Daniel Best (00:02:03):
Oh, okay. So I was born at a very early age, <laugh>. I was born in Elizabeth, which is a suburb of South Australia. It’s out of Adelaide. So I’m a northern boy, which means that swearing is second nature to me. And believe it or not, I speak fluent Northern, which is a different language. <affirmative> as those who come from there would know. And those very well sort of taught myself how to write when I was in school was encouraged in year 12 by a brilliant English teacher. I had Steve Shamrock who when we started year 12, I’d gone through all of my high school and I don’t know other people’s high schools, but you’d have what they would call creative writing, which was just write whatever you felt like. So whenever I’d write whatever I felt like before year 12, I’d always get these comments back going, Hey, you should go see a psychiatrist.

(00:03:21):
First thing I did in year 12 is I thought, I’m gonna go all out. So I wrote this piece of consciousness thing that I did, I can remember it vividly. It was about a guy in Vietnam during the Vietnam War, not bad for a 16 year old <affirmative>. And it was just full of swear words because I figured that if you are in a war zone and you’re getting shot by people that you don’t know, you are naturally gonna say some fruity language. And I handed it up, I thought, this will get me out of English for the rest of the year, no problems. And come the next lesson, Mr. Shamrock hands back the pieces to everyone and he says to me front of the class, I said, here we go, <laugh> sort out the front of the class. And he said, I read what you wrote.

(00:04:07):
And he goes, possibly one of the best things that anybody’s ever handed up to me from a student. I went, wow. I said, what we all the swearing? And he went, that’s what I gotta talk to you about. And he promptly then spent the rest of the lesson teaching me how to swear properly <laugh>, because I use, instead of I n g at the end of a certain word, I used E, he was going, no, no, no, because that’s an abbreviation of this word. And you abbreviate it by taking the G out, putting a little A on and oh the C word. Well that means as much as calling someone a dick, it doesn’t really mean anything. I’m thinking Jesus Christ <laugh>. So he just encouraged me to write and it just sort of went downhill from there. And I think some

Leigh Chalker (00:04:48):
Point, I dunno if that’s the right direction.

Daniel Best (00:04:51):
I think at some point I decided that I didn’t really want to create stories. I don’t know why I wanted to because I was always interested in history I guess. And I wanted to find out more about what fascinated me. And I found out that some of the things that fascinated me, there was nothing written about it, something really there or there were just little snippets piece there. So I sort gradually gravitated into writing about real life things and writing about history. And I still am I, when it comes to stuff like comic books and books and things like that. I’m more interested in the story behind the story, you know, can give me a So

Leigh Chalker (00:05:44):
Did you collect comic books as a young fellow

Daniel Best (00:05:50):
To get into them? Yeah, yeah. I used to shoplift all the time. <laugh>, the Little Page Digest, the Newton Comics, the Gray Os. Oh we had a great news agent down Elizabeth North and the old lady that ran it, I reckon she was blind, she was certainly myopic, she couldn’t see past a certain point and all the comic books at the other end. So you just walk in stuff all shirt and walk out like a little fat boy <laugh>. I’ve been knocking off all these comics I think. And the first one I remember getting was as a kid was the Spider-Man two part of the death of Gwen Stacey where the Green Goblin kills her. That’s the first comic book I can remember reading as a kid. We had, dunno where they turned up in the house, promptly ripped out the pages and colored in Spiderman and pinned into the wall, all the stuff the kids do.

(00:06:51):
So yeah, sort of came from there. I sort of became aware of what I was reading. I think in about 19 80, 81 we used to sit behind the shops, swag schools, sit behind the shops and read stuff and found people backwards. I mean I started for example with Fantastic Four and all that. I started with John Burn and then found Jack Kirby through the ov re prints that we got here. So for me the golden age of comic books was Walter Simons and Frank Miller and be all these other people, which is why I’ve always been fascinated at that part of it. Didn’t really care about the other stuff. I’d look at the older stuff and God, that’s lot of at tr compared to, yeah. And then I’ve realized I’m looking at some golden age or silver age artist and I’m comparing like George Perez and his prime. You no wonder it’s crap not realizing that, oh George and all of that, you not such burn.

(00:07:52):
But George certainly would spend a month doing one comic book and Kard spend a day doing one comic books and had Vinnie <inaudible> spent an hour inking it. So no wonder look as good as what the others did. So you just sort of blossomed from there. I did write about music for a fair while and after a while I just thought I’m sick and tired of writing about music. I was ghost writing for people and I just didn’t really like doing that either. And finally when one of the magazines I was writing for mainly went belly up, owing me a nice five figure sum, which was a good, would’ve been a good amount of money back in 2001 when I went belly up. Could’ve used it back then thought I’m not doing this anymore. And then for some reason of all people I’ve reached out to Gene Colin and Norm Brave and asked to interview them and both of them became fast friends.

(00:08:53):
In fact, norm became a brother to me and of encouraged me to keep going along nor Norm filled this the spot that I was looking for that what Mr. Shamrock had done to encourage me to just keep writing and keep going and keep doing performing. Still miss him every day. Miss him verbally <affirmative>. I was devastated when he rang up and told me what had happened to him. And we were both in tears. And then when I got the phone call that he’d gone to a different place, which I firmly believe, I mean his beliefs were that once you die you just transcend and become something else. And that’s what he’s probably done.

Leigh Chalker (00:09:35):
He was an integral part of as we’ve spoken about that before. And he was my first Batman Batman,

Daniel Best (00:09:45):
You

Leigh Chalker (00:09:45):
Know what I mean? He was the one for me where still man, you treat some comics a little bit different than you do others <affirmative>. And that is a brave Detective comics with Alan Grant who sadly just passed away recently. And he did great things for comics to me and they were awesome.

Daniel Best (00:10:07):
Alan was brilliant. People were asking me, what’s the thing that if I say what Alan was, because I knew him reasonably well through Norm and Alan and myself had spoken more than once. Alan was, he was very funny, he was very intelligent. He had a Scottish accent that could peel paint off a wall. <laugh>, it was great to talk to. But he was incredibly loyal and that sort of stuck with me. I mean I had a problem with a publisher in America and Alan when he found out straightaway got on me and said, look, I’m not gonna do anything for this guy ever again. He can go and woo and <laugh>. Alan was very good with his language, lots of <laugh>. And I said to Alan, don’t do that because it just hurts you in the long run because Norma done the same thing. We just both pulling out of this thing that we, all three of us had pitched and when this publisher had told me to go and swim they wanted still to do it with Norman Allen.

(00:11:21):
Both of them went no, I said no because you know can could exposure and the publicity that they went ahead and did it. But that was the last thing that a did for this guy. Said, I, I’m not working for him anymore because he’s stitched you up. That’s not a good thing. Yeah, yeah. I’ll another one that I miss mean he wasn’t well there towards the air but then Neel was normal and I tend to think they’re both probably sitting on a rock somewhere out in the ether arguing over philosophy in life in general. I’ve got some of the letters that they used to send back to each other, they’d fax each other in the wee hours of the morning and each fax would look, this is the last one for tonight cause it’s 4:30 AM and then there’d be obviously a fax something back and then there’d be another note on there from Norm going, look Alan, I’ve gotta get some sleep mate.

(00:12:16):
You definitely be alone <laugh> you. And there’d be the same thing from Alan that you’d have these comments that had just come through from Norm and the wee hours of the morning and in Alan’s morning and he’d just going look and often it’d go, so couple of really nice guys. So they encouraged me and then I just thought, I’m gonna go from doing interviews and doing magazine stuff I suppose because when I got back into doing the interviews, it reached a point where I was the same. I was in the same boat as what I was with the music stuff where I was writing stuff and I was doing ghost writing for people. I wasn’t getting paid. Or if I was, it was pits. And then I had a publisher rip me off for a book, the first book that I published. The publisher basically never paid me and never will and ripped off the subject of the book as well and didn’t pay you either. So <inaudible> s not the wrongs gonna take control back and hence I’m sitting where I’m sitting and I’m just writing about things, decided I wasn’t gonna write about comic books anymore. It I’m done. And just as I announced that to the world, three people that cared up pops Gary, she who went, oh by the way, I need some stuff for leisure <laugh>.

(00:13:36):
Cause you can’t say no to gas. It just went from there. You’re

Leigh Chalker (00:13:40):
There

Daniel Best (00:13:40):
Mate. Combining the two. Gotcha. I love writing about movies and the stuff I’m writing about now. I decided I, I think the key was to stop accepting commissions in. And it is different for a writer to an artist, the writer like a commission would mean that someone comes up to you and says, oh look I need this book on Michael Hutchins cause he’s just died. Can you write a book about it? Blah blah blah. And you do, you pump it out, it takes a month and then you get paid and you can do that. But it’s really soul destroying is you writing about crap that you don’t wanna write about. So I just decided I was only gonna write about what interests me and getting really deep into the history stuff and the legal stuff, the war stuff.

Leigh Chalker (00:14:30):
Well you’re

Daniel Best (00:14:31):
Fascinating.

Leigh Chalker (00:14:34):
Some of your writings got mentioned on the old what’s the name of it? The cartoon something something.

Daniel Best (00:14:42):
Oh that cartoon Cabi. Yeah. Yeah, they basically stole that one if you can see that. Yeah, they stole a lot of material I had about that one up on my blog. They sort of lifted that word for word until a few people pointed out that we know where you got this from guys.

Leigh Chalker (00:15:02):
Well I mean I was sitting here drawing and I must have just come up on the YouTube feed as you watch things in that just in the world of my own. And then I heard the, I would like to thank Daniel Best for like this and that and Dan Daniel Best and Daniel and I’m thinking, man I know Daniel Best and <laugh>, oh

Daniel Best (00:15:26):
I, I’ve got a whole of messages one morning including dad, Rob Felds just put you out on his <laugh>. What I thought, what have I done this time? And it was the same book And he was saying, what a brilliant book I’m thinking, dude you mentioned in it and probably not in a good way <laugh>. And suddenly my royalties went from here full straight through the roof. I love you Rob you it’s <laugh>.

Leigh Chalker (00:15:51):
You’re a legend mate. You should mention me more often.

Daniel Best (00:15:54):
Yeah, that’s what I said. I said Look, thank you for that. You didn’t have to mention it. Cause not only did he mention it, he was obviously, when he was doing his thing, he was going, and I’m going back to this book now and on page 115 on paragraph two, <laugh>, I think you’re really getting into it. And he was quoting it and I said,

Leigh Chalker (00:16:12):
Yes dude, that fella man you gotta say that’s bad

Daniel Best (00:16:15):
<laugh>. Yeah that I said Joe, you didn’t have to mention it because he put the cover scan up and he put a link to where you could buy it. And I said, yeah it it’s really done me wonders. And he went, nah, no problems. It’s a great book. What was it? I laughed hilariously from the moment I picked it up that when I put it down I went, what? Because it’s so poorly written. He goes, no, because you stitched up Todd <laugh>

Leigh Chalker (00:16:39):
<laugh>.

Daniel Best (00:16:41):
I thought, oh God. And he said it’s all accurate. And I went, well you are there. All this, a lot of this stuff he was in the middle of because it was all image stuff. And of course I covered in that book, I covered the lawsuit of Rob leaving Image cuz they both sued each other. Image sued Rob, Rob suit image. And he went, yeah, you got it. Perfect. Oh it’s <laugh>. There you go. Worries. Thought that’s an endorsement <laugh>. Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (00:17:08):
Yeah, yeah. Well man that was there or in the sidelines watching it all happen and stuff firsthand comes to you and says right on the money mate. So

Daniel Best (00:17:19):
The K Fabi people obviously heard it on the Robs thing and then they Googled and found the blog which had transcripts on it, which was mine. And I told them, I said, look, I know you took it from my blog because I’ve got the original transcripts from the legal filings and you’ve read out the edits that I did because if you’d read the transcripts they wouldn’t be reading like the edits that I did because anyone that that’ll tell you that if you read a deposition, a legal deposition, most they transcribe every single word. So it’d be Yeah, well then I did, no, hang on, wait a minute. And then the answer and I was just taking out all the superfluous stuff, the ums, the Rs start of an answer that went somewhere else and this they just read out money. Yeah, this is great. And I said, yeah, they’ve done it since they’ve lifted a few other bits and pieces. Good on ’em. They mention me. That’s the main thing.

Leigh Chalker (00:18:18):
Yeah.

Daniel Best (00:18:19):
And that’s all I say. Just if you’re gonna use it, just give me a shout out. And you should do that for anyone. If you’re gonna use someone’s work on a blog or not so much a blog, but certainly on a podcast that’s got a large audience that does not hurt you one bit to say, oh by the way Lee Chalker gotta give him a big thank you because this dirty picture that I’m showing you right now, he drew that and you can finally lee over on chaka.com, dot Russia or whatever <laugh>. But it doesn’t hurt to do

Leigh Chalker (00:18:58):
That. It doesn’t hurt at all. More

Daniel Best (00:19:01):
People should do.

Leigh Chalker (00:19:02):
It’s like hundred percent No, I’m with you mate. I think that’s 100% cool respect. Just the person that contributed the majo or the information that’s correct, all the artwork, any of those sorts of things man. Then credit them accordingly. So no, I’m with you there. So man, what was it that what was your first, cause I know you do fill,

Daniel Best (00:19:28):
Oh her name was, sorry,

Leigh Chalker (00:19:31):
<laugh>. Yes. And I know you write about film as well, but I’m interested cuz we’ll come to that cuz you’re doing a book that delves into film and comics and things. What was the first comic book book that you did Men? What was the one that struck you the most?

Daniel Best (00:19:54):
First one I wrote or the first one I read,

Leigh Chalker (00:19:58):
Either or Men.

Daniel Best (00:20:00):
First one I read was All In Color For a Dime, which was written by Don Thompson. I got that for 5 cents down at the Elizabeth Center library sale back in 1980. Acted by it first. What I wrote and got published was the biography of Ross Andrew and Mike Esposito. And that’s the one that the publisher who did that told me after he published it, he was ever gonna pay me,

Leigh Chalker (00:20:28):
Didn’t like me. It would’ve been an interesting story though for sure.

Daniel Best (00:20:34):
What him ripping me off or Ross and Mike, Ross and Mike were a far more interesting story than him ripping me off.

Leigh Chalker (00:20:38):
Yeah, no that’s the topic of the book <laugh>. Yes, not.

Daniel Best (00:20:42):
Oh yeah, because I was talking to Mike a fair bit. One point we were ring, I was ringing him up every week and we would just talk for hours on end. So it just sort of sprung from there, Mike, because we got along like House fire, I’m doing this, why just do a book? Oh nobody would buy a book about me and I, no, they’d buy a book about you and Ross. Anyway, Ross is dead. I went, yeah, well no, yeah there is that but you are not <laugh>. Go for it. So we did. And then I did book on Jim Moony. I wrote Jim Mooney’s biography with Jim. Jim was involved with that and that was another sour taste and that was what I was thinking. Everything I’m doing with the American stuff is just going really, really bad because publishers are just really not nice. So then I started going elsewhere. I collected all of the Superman legal stuff and did two volumes of that. There was gonna be three volumes but I never bothered with the third one. <affirmative> and then did the trial.

(00:21:52):
1955 I think was, there was a trial in Queensland cuz romance comics were banned in Queensland. So the publisher took the Queensland Board of Literature to court and I got the trial transcripts of that. So I did that and sort of expanded it out with some background information. Oh yes, you could not have romance comics. So part of the reason they banned them was because they just pathetic really in its context. It was because inflamed young girls and there was a nun, whereas my mother calls them bat there was a bat who was working in a bat school and she complained to the Queensland Board of Literature that when the young girls who were about 15, 16, and 17 read these romance comics, they then Google and whistle at the Gardener

Leigh Chalker (00:22:50):
<laugh>,

Daniel Best (00:22:55):
Their passions were inflamed

Leigh Chalker (00:22:59):
<laugh>. So we shut a whole state down

Daniel Best (00:23:04):
And all comics because 15 year old girls and 16 year old girls suddenly discovered boys. I don’t know about you, but I think I was about 13, 14 when I discovered that girls were not such a bad thing for me. And I’m sure that most girls are probably around the same age when they discovered that maybe that guy is not that bad looking. I don’t really think romance comics had much to do with them of having inflaming patterns. Maybe the fact that they were in an all-girl school and the garden because it came out in the trial that the gardeners used to basically strip down to their shorts and work on Queensland Hot Days. So they’d be out there, these incredibly fit musclely, young gardeners with their arms were hanging out doing the stuff and their tight shorts and the girls are going, woo, I’ll have a bit of that. It had nothing to do with <laugh>.

Leigh Chalker (00:23:59):
See in today’s day and age that nun would’ve been straight onto those plus. Plus I want Hi vi, I want all this stuff done. Girls go back to class.

Daniel Best (00:24:09):
Go back to class. Yes. Oh that’s hilarious. Yeah. Wonder if

Leigh Chalker (00:24:12):
Any of those gardeners went to, I wonder if any of the gardeners went to the pub with each other. Man it sat there and had a Chucky. You remember that time that we bloody shut down the romance

Daniel Best (00:24:23):
In Queens. Remember all them little Gary <laugh> actually, as I was writing it and I’m writing all this stuff, I’m thinking, wouldn’t it be great if the gardens were all gay <laugh> then the girls were just getting inflamed for no good reason. They were never gonna get Anyway. So after that one I wrote,

Leigh Chalker (00:24:48):
The nun would’ve been happy,

Daniel Best (00:24:50):
The nun was happy. Nuns are never happy, nuns are never happy. Unless back then they were never happy unless they beating <laugh>. And then I,

Leigh Chalker (00:25:00):
I went to a Catholic school for my whole education mate. So I did it sort of tempered off a little bit as I got older. But in the early days of primary school there was still a few nuns teaching and yeah, they were very nice people I’m sure when they’re not dealing with annoying youth. Some kids the stories.

Daniel Best (00:25:26):
Stories. My mother, cuz my mother went to a Catholic school, as did her sister I late on Shirley. And the stories my mother used to tell us as kids, I’m not going anywhere near a church. <laugh>. <laugh>. Then I found out I’d never been baptized. And of course over the years different people got, maybe you should get baptized. No, no <laugh>, no cuz Nuns. Nuns, no <laugh> nuns. No, no nuns. <laugh>. I wanna dress up as a nun. No, no, no <laugh>, no nuns.

Leigh Chalker (00:26:04):
I’ve met some people who were mortified at the side of clowns and stuff and movies and things. But you are like nuns mate. You’re like,

Daniel Best (00:26:13):
I can, I can. Yeah, well nuns look, I hate clowns. Everyone knows I hate clowns. I’m not afraid of them. I just hate them. I don’t know what it is. I just wanna hit clowns. <laugh>. But nuns, nuns terrify me because stories, yeah, most people’s parents would tell them ghost stories, Frankenstein and things like that. My mother said the nuns came in Damn <laugh> thes. You know, you panic. And I thought it was just my mum. It was only a few years ago, Marty Shirley used to bring up and tell us all these stories. Those bats remember the bats and they used to do this and do that cuz Shirley never called a All bats to her God guys, you’re like you in naive. He says it’s like 70 years ago and you’re still holding that. What do these nuns do to you? <laugh>?

Leigh Chalker (00:27:03):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I once saw in primary school and that had a bit of a limp. Like she was known for a limp and she had it all time. I went to this school for years. This wasn’t a bun on, this was a proper limp. And I remember this kid annoyed her so much one day that she launched everything off that chalkboard. He bolted out the classroom men. And I’m telling you she didn’t have a limp when she went. She started running after mate. She was like a bolt of lightning. It was just like

Daniel Best (00:27:42):
They take flight.

Leigh Chalker (00:27:44):
Oh that’s fierce man. Angry.

Daniel Best (00:27:48):
We used to say, can we watch the flying Nun? No <laugh>. What’s field done to you?

Leigh Chalker (00:28:03):
So while we’re talking, where can we get viewers, anyone that’s out there, get some of your books man, because you’re on the social medias and stuff. You got copies of those. If you got a random, like someone yell out to you or touch base with you.

Daniel Best (00:28:19):
Yeah pretty much They can get ’em from me. They go to Facebook or Twitter is probably the best ways. I don’t do TikTok as I said this song the other night and you on Tick, I went, no, I’m over four <laugh> you. I think I was telling you guys I trying to get on TikTok once my Grandie and her friend were dancing and I’m in the background, I’m like this, get away. You’re old. Thank you. Really not <laugh>. <laugh> Well’s only for kids. It’s not for old people like you. Oh thank you. No worries, no problems. So no TikTok for me.

Leigh Chalker (00:28:53):
Yeah, there’s no for me either mate. So don’t feel left out. You know,

Daniel Best (00:28:59):
Got less hair than me so you’re out.

Leigh Chalker (00:29:01):
Yeah, that’s fine mate. That’s exactly right. See there, there’s certain parameters, man.

Daniel Best (00:29:07):
And or Amazon.

Leigh Chalker (00:29:09):
Just when I came Acrosst and saw the first video, I thought I might skip that. That might not be for me. But hey,

Daniel Best (00:29:15):
Amazon’s a

Leigh Chalker (00:29:17):
Good place. Lots of joy for people out there that are listening and watching out there that enjoy TikTok, by all means go ahead and enjoy your tick. So yeah, there you go. So you can get Daniel now briefly if you wanna whack that up there, look at him go,

Daniel Best (00:29:32):
Oh yeah, he’s a meme.

Leigh Chalker (00:29:35):
You are smooth. You’re like, John.

Daniel Best (00:29:38):
People in South Australia know exactly what this meme is, it’s the wooy and they’ll know what that is. It’s got nothing to do with it with oh God, I don’t know if there’s anyone called Wooy anymore. Amazon’s another place where you can get my stuff. Especially the stuff that’s been printed in America Australian Gothic and things like that. Which was a story of the Dr stage play in 1929. You can get it through there. So if you don’t wanna go through me, just Google my name, put my name into Amazon, it’ll come up with something. Funny thing is it’ll also come up with tractors. Apparently I’m immortal. I was born in the early 18 hundreds and I invented tractors.

Leigh Chalker (00:30:19):
Yeah, you’re right.

Daniel Best (00:30:20):
Yeah.

Leigh Chalker (00:30:21):
How, how’s that going?

Daniel Best (00:30:23):
Oh it’s going well. I wish I could a brought from it. <laugh>. There was another idiot with the same name as me back in the, in the 18 hundreds in America that have had detractors. So a Wikipedia, a lot of the times when I’ve mentioned as a source and my name is Linked Links back to this dude that have been attractors back in the

Leigh Chalker (00:30:40):
<laugh>. Have you ever had someone like some Bullhead actually send you an email saying like, mate it was a real good idea. You coming up with that tractor thing?

Daniel Best (00:30:51):
<laugh> John Deere’s not working at the moment. Reckon you’ll

Leigh Chalker (00:30:58):
Mate <laugh>

Daniel Best (00:31:02):
The record. Come over and service be John Deere

Leigh Chalker (00:31:07):
<laugh>. Oh man. So I want to get to this now just briefly. This is also a book that I have a copy of for anyone out there. I love that book. We can’t talk about certain things that are in said book because please do not. If you’re a faint of heart individual possibly passages from this book are okay, but it’s very, it’s deep, it’s thick, it’s bit gruesome, but it’s a hell of a story. So anyone out there wants to get on that, that’s some good stuff. So I recommend that. Believe me,

Daniel Best (00:31:44):
It’s a very triggering book and I’ve had people say that to me. They go, I can’t read it all. It’s triggering me. And I go, just put it down and go away. Throw it in the bin. I’m a firm believer that if you read something and for whatever reason you go and I’ve done it with stuff, I’ve gone, no, no, no, I’m out of this only nuns. But I’ve done it with other things where I’ve just gone, I can’t read this for whatever reason. It might trigger a memory in you or something that’s happened. And I just say to people, look, don’t feel you have to read it just because I’ve wrote it. Or same as I don’t feel I have to read everything that people I know that when they’ve written stuff I’ve gone, I can’t read that.

Leigh Chalker (00:32:24):
Well Ben, I mean

Daniel Best (00:32:25):
Pretty much, yeah, just put it down,

Leigh Chalker (00:32:28):
It’s full on. But it’s a hell of a story

Daniel Best (00:32:32):
And to be told. But

Leigh Chalker (00:32:33):
It’s a comic story that’s quite unbelievable for anyone out there wants to read it. Yeah, turns out basically, I guess Daniel, that our greatest comic book creator, artist writer at the time turned out to be a psychopath and ended up certainly

Daniel Best (00:32:53):
One of those popular, I wouldn’t say greatest. I think the best feedback I got from it was from Steve Bassett who sent me a message and said, this is scaring the hell outta me. And it’s very disturbing and I’m finding it hard to read. I thought you, you’re the guy that did swamp thing <laugh> with a Moore, come on. He said, no, this is a bit full on what <laugh>, you’ve been running about horror since you were like in the crib rib <laugh>. So

Leigh Chalker (00:33:19):
Yeah, that’s a hell of an endorsement

Daniel Best (00:33:20):
Though. Yeah, I thought love <laugh>. I’ve done Willie, I’ve, I’ve scared Steve <laugh>. But yeah and I told the story to friends of ours and the wife of a close friend of mine, she got me, sent me a message and she said, I haven’t slept for three days. And I went, why? She said, because I’m just going through this stuff in my head and I’m just not happy with you the moment. I’m sorry, do you want me to read you witty the pill or something? Feel better. Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (00:33:58):
It obviously it would’ve been a little bit traumatic to research and write about, I would assume. How long did you take on that book

Daniel Best (00:34:07):
Mate? Years, I think probably about five, six years. And then I sat on it. Part of that was I sat on it for about 18 months cause I just didn’t know what to do with it. And again, it was Gary Sheer who he said to me, you gotta get this out there, you have to put it out there. And I went, I don’t, it’s just really disturbing, but it has to be told. Mm-hmm <affirmative> the story now don’t just sit on it. And then the next thing I know I g sends me a picture and the cover it did had a blurb at the top, which we never used.

(00:34:50):
And I went, okay, well let’s just go ahead with it. So he did all the heavy lifting, he laid it all out and got all the files prepped and everything and then send it all back and then off it went. And I’ve gotta admit, I mean God love him and I do, I love gas dearly. It actually helped because once it was out there something I wasn’t living with it anymore and I felt a lot better. And I, I’ve failed to understand how people can write about, of serial killers of murderers and rapists day after day after day, how they pump out all these books get, there’s something inherently wrong with the people that do these crimes. But there’s also, I think, something inherently wrong with these people that pump out book after book after book audit it. How do you do that? Not be affected.

(00:35:39):
I know it affected me quite savagely still when people online talk about Len Lawson and they, oh, I collect all the loan Avenger stuff and oh he was great and all of this. If you knew half of what he did, you’d burn that stuff no matter how much you like it. And no matter how much it’s worth, you’d burn it. I mean when in the early research phase I bought so much of that stuff online and some of it was really, really rare. And I think by about the time I got two thirds through just said to, I just thought, no, I’m just getting rid of it and just sold it. Didn’t want it anymore. Someone that I sold it a loss, I didn’t care. I just didn’t want it in the house. I just really did not want it in the house because it just reminds you think. And knowing what he did and it wasn’t nice as, and knowing that he was putting clues into his work, he was foreshadowing what he was doing by putting it into his stories in a roundabout way. I can’t look at this stuff anymore and not be affected by it. So no in the gone. So yeah, it’s a tricky one. I hope never to have to write anything that brutal again, <affirmative>.

(00:37:06):
I think if someone came to me and said, oh, how would you like to write about Ivan? That I’d sit there and go, no, I don’t think I want to. You’d have to pay me, put it this way. Six to maybe seven zeros on the end of that before I come there.

Leigh Chalker (00:37:19):
Yeah, yeah. Least

Daniel Best (00:37:20):
Six zeros and a one

Leigh Chalker (00:37:22):
In front. Man. It’s heavy to read. I could only imagine it would’ve been heavy for the years of research, you know what I mean? It’s a hell of a story though. And I agree. It is one that has to be told because one of the things that I like, man I love history like God I studied it. I didn’t have a choice. My dad at school. History, history, everything was history. So when I had the opportunity to read that and read it, it also goes to show you just how far back. And that’s only a little bit how far back Australian comics go

Daniel Best (00:38:02):
Way back

Leigh Chalker (00:38:03):
Way. And that’s a beautiful thing too. For anyone out there that doesn’t know Daniel, what your, I’d say a historian of comic books and stuff would, what’s the earliest Australian comic book that you can think of mate from the top of your head?

Daniel Best (00:38:25):
I always plumped for bumps. A comic book called Bumps, which came out in the, I think it was about 1912 or something. And that had new material in it. But of course there was stuff that was done earlier than that. Some people go for the first Sun beans, which was Ginger mes, that was reprints of Ginger mes from the newspaper strips. Whereas Bumps was material that was commissioned just for bumps. But because it’s not a sequential book that some people go, well it’s not a comic book. But then I look at some beams and go, well that wasn’t a sequential book either. That was just a collection of Sunday strips. So the only thing that had in common with it was they were all on the one topic where Fus was different. But if you’re looking at a comic book as in a comic book, you would be looking at something like Sunbeams or the Fatty Fins and stuff like that that came out.

(00:39:24):
But there’s always been publications which have illustrations in them and sometimes sequential illustrations on a page with dialogue or words. Cuz you gotta remember back in the day we wouldn’t have word balloons. I mean if you pick up something like May Gibbs, Bibb and Bub and things like that, she would draw the illustration in the panel and down at the bottom of the panel it would be the dialogue. So it would have like bib talking to Bub or whatever and have bib, you’re an idiot bub. Oh stick it in your hat. And that would be it. So yeah, it’s a contentious thing because all anyone that sort of studies this stuff all have a different viewpoint of what is a comic book for a start and what do you think the earliest one is going by your definition and on Everyone disagrees, which is great

Leigh Chalker (00:40:27):
Asking you Well mate, it’s if everyone was the same it’d be a boring place. But absolutely asking you, you now, what in your mind makes a comic book? What’s your,

Daniel Best (00:40:42):
Something that’s got illustration in it? And it’s more illustration than text. So a comic book can for me have pages of text, but as long as it’s got more illustration or it has illustration illustrating the text to make it make sense. And I tend to look at comic books in a purest form that I know this is a silly thing cuz people will sit there going, you’re wrong. And I say it to myself, I’m wrong of it being original material. So whi which negates all of the reprint stuff that comes out cause it’s not original material is it? It’s already appeared but then there it is.

(00:41:30):
So that’s why I sort of sit there and go, well I think Bumps comes first because 1910 or whatever it was, or 1908 I think it might have been because that was original material commission for that book. Whereas like I said, sun Beams, which was early 1930s or late 1920s possibly was reprints. It’s still a comic book, don’t get me wrong. But I like to go with the original stuff before I’d go with the reprint. Like picking up your Newton comic Spider-Man Newton Comic and going, oh that, that’s an original. Yeah, you’re right, it is an original book but the material in it isn’t original because it came out previously in America or wherever it comes from. So that’s how I look at them. But everyone has different definitions and like I said, that’s what makes everyone unique and different in that regard that we all fight.

(00:42:31):
I always discuss this with an America oh I can’t remember his last name. Can’t even pronounce it. If I tried to, and he’s been going back and forth with me for a year over two decades now about the first comic book and he’s going pulling stuff out from the 17 hundreds in America and England. But it’s before that mate, we’re talking like wood cuts <laugh>. So we are constantly trying to find out which what we think is the first one. But then other people sit there and go, no, no, no, not America was the first one with graphic novels there. Well what’s a graphic novel? And they go, well graphic novel is new material in a book or it, it’s longer than a comic book. Okay. Right. Well see Nicholas was doing that with those fatty fins and medieval low books that he was doing in the 1930s and 1940s.

(00:43:25):
Those big oversized ones, which are brilliant. Well they’re graphic novels are they? And they came before Will Eisner so you can’t win me. So yeah, it’s different definitions for different people. Yeah, I mean I still maintain, the first superhero comic was Action comics one and I’m still having arguments with people about that one. Mm-hmm. Say, oh no Flash good came before it flash Good. It’s just a dude, Batman’s not a super superhero because he’s just a dude in a bad outfit that relies on a lot of weapons and things, know technology. So he’s not really a superhero. Whi he,

Leigh Chalker (00:44:05):
Yeah, I suppose in the definition of superhero powers, like superpowers superhuman type thing. So

Daniel Best (00:44:15):
That’s

Leigh Chalker (00:44:16):
Interesting. Yeah,

Daniel Best (00:44:17):
Think about it. So that’s the whole definition of what’s a comic but well what are the characters? So yeah, everyone has a different viewpoint.

Leigh Chalker (00:44:25):
Oh man. I think it’s always healthy though to have a different viewpoint, as you’ve just said before. It invites discussion, it invites, it creates interest in topics and stuff like that. Man,

Daniel Best (00:44:37):
As long as you remember that you are wrong. And I’m right

Leigh Chalker (00:44:41):
<laugh> quote Daniel. Yes, Daniel Best is quoted here as long as you are wrong. And I’m right. I should get a shirt for that one day, man. That’s cool. I like that. I can’t believe you haven’t already got a shirt we’re saying that.

Daniel Best (00:44:55):
Oh no, not yet. Yeah Dave, I superhero needs superpowers. Yeah Dave, you’re right. A superhero does need superpowers. That’s why I look at things. I mean before Superman you had Buck Rogers, you had Flash Gordon, you had the Fattom and you go, but they’re costumed heroes. They’re not superheroes. They wore costumes and they did different things but they didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. I mean in theory you could be Batman if you had Elon Musk money in theory you could be the phantom, but you cannot be, cannot be. I mean even Captain America, cause he has that super soldier sort of syrupin him. You know, could not be iron fist but you could be Sha Chi. Cuz Sha Chi is just the pinnacle of martial arts. Whereas I fist has that, I have my

Leigh Chalker (00:45:57):
Fist <laugh>

Daniel Best (00:45:58):
My fist that turns undue. Yeah, he has a superpower. So yeah, I mean I look at costume heroes as opposed to superheroes, which is why I always point out action comics one cause it’s the first one that had a super hero. It had someone in there that had powers that were not of a human.

Leigh Chalker (00:46:19):
Yeah, yeah. I ran into one of those ironed blokes in a pub north in up here in north Queensland about 15 years back mate. So

Daniel Best (00:46:32):
Well that’ll learn you.

Leigh Chalker (00:46:33):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought I had superpowers that night. Don’t

Daniel Best (00:46:39):
Worry. I’m sure you did. Well we’ve all been there <laugh>. I’ve had a skim full come on. <laugh> in hospital. Just calm down. <laugh>, you got your head punched in an hour and a half ago, right?

Leigh Chalker (00:46:54):
<laugh>, it’s like you were there mate. It’s like you were there, it’s telling you <laugh>

Daniel Best (00:47:00):
You up all than once

Leigh Chalker (00:47:03):
The next lot of stuff that you’re working on mate. You got a movies to comic book thing going on that’s sort of centered around Spawn if I recall. And I’m aware of you’re still heavily working on that. That is enjoyable. It’s becoming bigger and bigger.

Daniel Best (00:47:28):
It is. I started off by writing about the making of the movie spa and what I wanted to do was sort of establish how Todd McFarland of all people, God knows why he one’s starting to call me an expert on Todd. I’m sort of an accidental expert <laugh> and I’m sure Todd hates it. I’ve never spoken to the guy outta town I ever will. And I started writing about the making and mainly to show that how Todd McFarland actually changed the way superhero movies were done in Hollywood and how they were approached. And when I finished it I had a friend reader who knew nothing about the stuff and he said, yeah, that’s all really good but what happened beforehand?

(00:48:14):
So I started writing a little intro before I knew it I’m thinking, I’ve got two books here. The first book being all of the superhero movies that came prepo and what happened with the creators and and how that changed things. So yeah, that’s still a work in progress. I go back to it every so often cause I’m working on another book which I won’t mention here because I know someone else is actually working on a similar book. Doubt they’re even looking at this. And that’s been pitched at a publisher. So once that gets picked up I’ll be able to say what it’s all about exciting. I’m working heavily on that one at the moment.

(00:48:59):
Yeah. But the superhero film book again it it’s finding an angle. <affirmative> the trick with writing stuff and writing history is finding an angle that interests you. And ironically enough, this was something I learned when I worked in radio cause I’d play all kinds of weird stuff and someone used to say, if you like it, someone else out there must like it unless you’re a freak. Which when it comes to music, I pretty much am. So when it comes to history and books, I figure if I like and I’m getting interested in it, then someone else will. And I generally tend to run stuff by my better half and she’ll say, oh it’s pretty. And I can tell people glaze over or they just go, wow. And when they get the wow, I go right now I’m on the right track now I can get the book in.

(00:49:58):
So with the superhero film book, it was just not my friends coming back and saying, well what happened before you’ve, you’ve only telling half a story here. Great, okay, now I know and I can go from there. So yeah, it’s finding the hook. If it interests me I’ll write about it. And that’s what I was trying to get at earlier. If it doesn’t interest me, I won’t even bother. I won’t even look at it When people say, do you wanna write about this? Go? I no interest in that whatsoever. So I’d only be, I suppose to use the bad expression. I’d only be prostituting myself for it. And quite frankly, I’m too old. No one’s gonna buy me <laugh>.

(00:50:42):
What I’ve got to sell is just, yeah, nah. Yeah, yeah. I want it. You can get better down the road. <laugh>. <laugh>. Yeah. So I just don’t mean otherwise. Yeah, if I’m thrilled by it, it’s what I do with articles as well. With Inpo for example, I’ve been putting a couple of bit bits in there and what happens is Naz, Steve Nazo will come to me and he’ll go, I’ve been thinking about blah blah blah. Or he’ll go, yeah and then we, oh okay. We throw ideas back and forwards at each other and then we sort of come up with one that, yeah, let’s go with that. And then I’m interested straight away if I’m interested yet I’ll go, we’ll make this happen, I’ll do it. No profits. So yeah, when people approach me to do articles, I generally either say no, which is the default now or let me think about it for a second.

(00:51:42):
Which is not a no, it’s just, let me think. And when I’ll say, let me think. And this is a strange thing cause people automatically think that when you go, yeah, I’m gonna think about this. They think, oh you’ve gotta say no, no, I’m gonna have a look around and have a bit of a research dive for a couple of hours. And if I can find something in that research dive that makes me go, yeah, that’s it, then yeah sure I’ll do it. Come back and go, yeah look what’s your deadline? And that’s the other thing we get, what’s your deadline tomorrow? I want 5,000 words go. Yeah, well you’re not getting them <laugh> not happening, you know, should have got to me earlier then I just leave it. So yeah, lots of fun. Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (00:52:24):
Right. Cause how many books when you work and how many books are you working on? Do you focus on the one thing or I’ll do this today and then veer off something else. Takes you fancy, do that tomorrow, come back, just keep zigzagging around.

Daniel Best (00:52:42):
Look, I chop and change like the cows come home. I mean at the moment I’m working on the one that I’ve pitched to at American Publisher. I’m working on the cyclone book that guys and myself are doing. I’m working on the superhero film book. It’s not been unknown for me to juggle about seven or eight projects at once. What happens is when I get a interest and with the one I’m not gonna mention, I mean the publisher is the same publisher that’s doing the book I got coming out in October, which is the history of horror film in Australia. And they said we would like to have first look at what you do thought. Okay. I didn’t really think much of it. I took someone put it out if they want first look, that means they really like what you’ve done. Great. So I sent it through to ’em and they went yes, send through the pitch.

(00:53:33):
So the guy that I’m dealing with is he send through the pitch so I can throw it at the board meeting and get back to you. So of course, because that’s probably gonna be a goer I, I’m concentrating on that to get it finished and get it as good as I can. And then I’ll go back to something cuz there’s no publisher for this one, there’s no publisher for that one. The next one, I’ll go back and I’ll start hitting up actually this week is the cyclone book. And the reason I do that is I find that if you work on a project constantly for an extended period of time, you stop looking at it, you become stale. So I always sit there and go, I’m not getting way out of this what I want to get, starting to pull teeth, I’m gonna go jump on something else and I look at it and go, wow, then I’ll get enthused about it again.

(00:54:19):
It’s all fresh and then I get stuck into it. So yeah, I always find dropping and changing and cho on different projects is actually a good thing to do. That’s why I pick up the odd article here and there for magazines, it’s something different. So let’s go for it, let’s do this thing and then spend a month on it or a couple of weeks and just knock it out. And then the other books that will still be there. That’s the best part. Writing as I do without a deadline because I don’t pitch anything to a publisher until I’m about 80% finished. And then when they give me, I mean the Americans will give me a deadline and I’ll go, oh I’m gonna meet that easily. Cuz generally the Americans will sit, they go, okay, well the deadline’s gonna be a year from today when you’ve gotta submit it by, oh God, a year, how about next week?

(00:55:08):
So it gives me enough time to do stuff. So with writing without a deadline, a hard deadline I just think makes it better. You put more work into it, you put more love into it, you put more research into it. Otherwise you’re just writing about Michael Hutchins 10 minutes after he’s dead, who cares? It’s just gonna be regurgitation of newspaper articles, project you’re working on. Yeah, you got it. If you don’t have any passion for it, don’t do it. Yeah. Cause otherwise you’re just hacking it out. People have, and I’ve always said this, you can tell me I can’t write, you can tell me I can’t spell, you can tell me I can’t speak, you can tell me I’m a bu. Don’t ever say I’m a hack cuz I don’t hack anything out. I actually, I’ve done that. I’ve hacked stuff out back in the nineties because that was when I was starving and I needed the money to pay rent or buy food.

(00:56:04):
So I would hack something out in the space of two days or a day and send it off just so I could get the money. That was fine. So I wouldn’t get evicted. I know what hacking stuff out is like and it’s, it’s not fun. You know, just sit there going, I don’t really care. So I look at a lot of the books and I see now I just go, I can tell someone’s just really hacked that out. And you’re only doing it for the money. Yeah. Good. If you need the money and I’m not rich far from it, I need the money but I’m not built for that kind of hack work. So yeah, accuse me of anything. But always say to people, don’t ever say I’m a hack because you don’t how long I spend on these things.

Leigh Chalker (00:56:49):
Well you sound like you’ve found your little zone where you’re happy, what you wanna do and what you know are comfortable with doing too. Men, I think that that’s healthy in itself when you can focus and you’re happy with your project and that cuz you’re a passionate dude. Cause I want No. Yeah, yeah. And I marvel at how much information you can store in your mind man working on these huge books and going through

Daniel Best (00:57:19):
A trivial pursuit. Good at trivia nights.

Leigh Chalker (00:57:21):
Yeah. <laugh> you would be made, I’d see you walk in on the bloody tri pursuit and I’d be like,

Daniel Best (00:57:28):
Do you want the best two trivia night answers that you can ever give

Leigh Chalker (00:57:32):
<laugh>?

Daniel Best (00:57:32):
Right. First one is, and it always get asked and I used to get text messages from people, what is the flagship of the US Navy

Leigh Chalker (00:57:42):
<affirmative>,

Daniel Best (00:57:43):
The enterprise. It has been the enterprise for many years. Whenever they decommission it, they commission another enterprise. Which is why in Star Trek you had the enterprise, the first space shutter was the enterprise. It’s always space, right? So it’s the first one to remember. The second one is if you add all of the numbers on a rule wheel up, what number do you get?

Leigh Chalker (00:58:04):
No idea.

Daniel Best (00:58:06):
Six. Six. Six devil’s number.

Leigh Chalker (00:58:09):
There you go.

Daniel Best (00:58:10):
There you go. So remember then when you do your trivia nights and someone asks you those questions, they go, it’s $500 weighing on this man, I’ve got these. Ring it on you.

Leigh Chalker (00:58:25):
Oh I am gonna remember that. I might even,

Daniel Best (00:58:27):
You’ll forget it. You’ll forget it. 10 minutes after we log

Leigh Chalker (00:58:29):
Off. No, that’s why I’ve got a pad and pen here Daniel, so I can write things down. Matt

Daniel Best (00:58:35):
<laugh> ask next week I be you’ll.

Leigh Chalker (00:58:38):
Especially when it comes to winning money, mate, I’ll take,

Daniel Best (00:58:43):
Ask you next week. You’re gonna go, can I find a friend? No. Cause on the phone

Leigh Chalker (00:58:48):
<laugh>. Yeah, sure.

Daniel Best (00:58:51):
I’ll phone a friend when the friends ask you the question you go <laugh>.

Leigh Chalker (00:58:57):
Absolutely. Hey, getting back to our topic, cuz I know there’s a lot of people like that. Listen and they’re out there and watch this show later and stuff. The upcoming cyclone book mates you got any tentative dates on release or how far along you are there because that has ped a lot of people’s interest, I must say that enjoy Australia.

Daniel Best (00:59:23):
Good. It should do. It’s a very important period of time. I look at the Cyclone era and I call it the cyclone era because what Ga and Glen and Dave and Tad and all of the rest of ’em did Alex, a lot of them is they launched, basically launched their American style superhero comics at Australia and popularized it. And then after they did that they went global. Certainly GLA Glass Glen and Dave did GLA and Guin. Yeah, gla, <laugh>, GLAS Gin and Dave, they certainly went global. They worked everywhere. So it’s an important period and G is still a vital part of American, American, Australian comic books today. And one of the nicest people in the entire Australian comic book community is Dad’s followed by Glen. And Dave is a lovely man. He’s been so helpful. It’s not funny, he’s, he’s always helpful. He’s always up for a chat.

(01:00:41):
In fact, we’ve been saying for a while we’ve gotta head back up to und, which is where he lives because Dave and Donna, his wife just have the best dinner parties ever. <laugh>. They take us to the best restaurants, <laugh>. And the last one that was as we’re leaving Dave, so what should I get? A red or a white or a Shera and Donna went, what are you talking about? Just grab all three <laugh> everywhere. So we normally go up there when we were going up there pre Covid, we haven’t been up there since Covid, but we’d go up there and book a hotel room for the night because there’s no way, no, we could go out for dinner with Donna and Dave and then drive home. <laugh>. You could barely stagger back to the hotel room.

(01:01:31):
Go back the next day. So yeah, they’re all really, really good guys. Tad, a lot of them they’re lovely guys to talk to. So I’d be working on this one with da, I mean it, he’s done a lot of work on it. He’s done a lot of heavy lifting and we’ve been working on it for God, probably five years or so now. And he’s just, this, just last week sent back some of his edits and suggested to change it, which I’ve actually gotta get into. So I’ll probably get into that this week or next week at the latest and then I’ll fire it back off to gas and when both our schedules sort of match up, because he’s working on his projects as well. So when is Dxa are cleared I’ll clear mine. I’ve always said with gas I’ll work to his schedule, not him work to mine because his schedule’s busy compared to mine. So when he’s, he’s got the time freed up, I will free up all my time. Then we sit down and we know the format of the book. We know how big it’s gonna be. We know cuz it’s gonna be part of a series, an ongoing series. We know what the series is called. We’ve GA has already done a mock up of the cover. We’d like that.

(01:02:56):
So the next step is once we both are happy with the text we then go through and pick the artwork and that’ll probably take about another year. It won’t take

Leigh Chalker (01:03:06):
That there. There’s so much artwork

Daniel Best (01:03:08):
To look, there’s so much out there and there’s so much unpublished stuff that they’ve done. And we want to use original art use. You know, see in some of those American ones where they show the whole page of original arts margins and all the thumb prints and cigarette burns a lot. We want to go the whole hog at that. We word balloons that have fallen off and things like that. So which gas will probably sit there and go fix that. Now <laugh>

Leigh Chalker (01:03:38):
Tell you, well man, that’d be love. It’s

Daniel Best (01:03:41):
Gonna be good

Leigh Chalker (01:03:42):
On the wall for that day, man. When you are flicking through hard work and stuff, it’ll be unbelievable.

Daniel Best (01:03:49):
The key is, and this is gonna sound incredibly egotistical and I’m almost embarrassed to say it when I approach a project like this, it’s the same with a project I’m working on at the moment. It’s the same with the history of horror film in Australia and that Lynn Lawson that I wanna write the one book that everyone’s gonna look at it and go, there’s no point writing another one. This guy’s covered it. And that’s what I aim to do. And it’s when I started with the cyclone one and I spoke to everyone, what’s the goal? I just wanna write the definitive book on that whole era, that whole period, that whole company. And while doing it, I wanna write about what happened and where everyone ended up, how everyone came together and so forth. And so it doesn’t just cover Cyclone, it covers Glen and Dave coming down here and doing Baro Studios and working in America and Batman, Phantom, things like that. And it covers what happened to Tad and why he left the industry and then came back. Covers, mainly covers what happens, happened to gas from his humble beginnings to where he is now. Because gas is the constant throughout the whole cyclone story. Because he owns Cyclone, he owns the name, he owns the company, he still publishes the cyclone. So it covers gas pretty much from a little gas, little gasoline, I suppose we’ll call him <laugh> Gas. A little gasoline up until the big garton that he is today.

Leigh Chalker (01:05:28):
Yeah, yeah, that’s that’s gonna be a hell of an exciting book, man.

Daniel Best (01:05:33):
A ride. I’ll give it that. Very

Leigh Chalker (01:05:35):
Keen to that. Yeah.

Daniel Best (01:05:36):
Oh everyone is, I keep getting, now this will be another one after I do this. This is not long ago when I was talking about it, like these messages. Oh, can you send me a copy so I can read it? No. Oh, like everyone else,

Leigh Chalker (01:05:52):
It’ll be worth the wait

Daniel Best (01:05:55):
And just

Leigh Chalker (01:05:56):
Been on a little while longer. It’s like,

Daniel Best (01:05:58):
Yeah, just wait. It’ll be good

Leigh Chalker (01:06:00):
Stuff. We’ll finish to keep everyone satisfied. No doubt.

Daniel Best (01:06:04):
We’re still trying to find a way of putting no swear words in it. That’s not easy.

Leigh Chalker (01:06:10):
Yeah, well I’ve gotta say, mate, you’re doing exceptionally well here this evening for no swear words on the show cuz I really like how you’re covering it with the, I reckon that’s working. We might be onto something there. <laugh> awesome.

Daniel Best (01:06:31):
My mother, if she’s listening will know who I’m talking about here cuz she may be watch a Charlie Callus call Callus movie when I was younger. And of course all Charlie did was going <laugh>, oh, make these funny noises. And I always used to think, is he having a stroke or is he just <laugh>? He <laugh>. No, no, that’s what he did. <laugh>. I have no problems.

Leigh Chalker (01:06:54):
No, I like it. I think it’s pretty good. I, I’m gonna try and remember that trying to curb my ways here. I can be a little bit of a foul mouth bugger from time to time. But now that I’ve got in my wallet, I reckon that might kick me outta some root trouble. So <laugh>,

Daniel Best (01:07:13):
This would make you laugh. A friend of mine, a friend of mine when I went to school Ian, I’m not gonna say his last name, but Ian who I’m talking about he used to come up with these sort of things and he used to come up with he’d walk up to people and he’d go like this

Leigh Chalker (01:07:34):
<laugh>

Daniel Best (01:07:36):
<laugh>. And he’d say, that’s how a dirty old man propositions, ladies of the night. How much

Leigh Chalker (01:07:45):
<laugh>,

Daniel Best (01:07:49):
I still do it now. It was a bad influence on year 12.

Leigh Chalker (01:07:54):
We’ve got friends like that mate.

Daniel Best (01:07:59):
There were other things that we did back then, but we, how long did the statue of limitations go for in this country?

Leigh Chalker (01:08:09):
<laugh>.

Daniel Best (01:08:11):
Asking for a friend.

Leigh Chalker (01:08:13):
Asking for man, I dunno. I dunno. I, I’m I now Ian. Ian and I like Ian. He’s a nice fellow. He

Daniel Best (01:08:28):
Lives up near to your way. I think he’s in he is in Cairns or Townsville. What are the two? Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (01:08:33):
Right. Well if he’s in Townsville, that’ll explain it. So

Daniel Best (01:08:39):
<laugh>, I say his last name. I’ll tell you later, you’ll probably go, oh that

Leigh Chalker (01:08:43):
Guy <laugh> <laugh>. What’s funny, I may do, if he’s in Townsville <laugh> and you grow up somewhere, everyone man crazy.

Daniel Best (01:08:54):
He moved up here in a Volkswagen, him <laugh>.

Leigh Chalker (01:08:59):
Oh I might already know him. So hey shoot me, me. Why do you do it yourself man? Why do you do it yourself?

Daniel Best (01:09:12):
Do what to myself?

Leigh Chalker (01:09:14):
Oh well a bit this writing and working for comic stories and stuff like that. When you’re sitting in there where when you’re sitting in there sometimes you know would ask yourself why, so why? What’s the answer that you

Daniel Best (01:09:31):
Have? I asked myself why. I’m asked why. And I always said the same thing because I can know this stuff and I think if I know it then you should know it. I think knowledge is power or cliche. Sharing knowledge is absolute power. And I’ve come across people over the years and they know things but they won’t tell you cause they think that by withholding that knowledge makes them special. No, it just makes you a pratt. Knowledge is power. And I think if I know something and you are interested in that topic, why shouldn’t I tell you? Why shouldn’t I share it with you? And you know, may look at that topic again in a different light. You might sit there go, oh I don’t think I like it now. Or you might sit there, go man, I always hated that. And now looking at it and thinking that’s great.

(01:10:29):
So yeah, I think why? Because I have this knowledge and I believe that and I get more knowledge every day. That was something my mother always told me was the day I stopped learning, I should just give up. And fortunately I haven’t stopped learning yet. Cuz my mother is one of the, and she’ll deny this, she was one of the smartest people I’ve ever known because when we were young, used to come up to her and ask questions and she’d know the answer and if she didn’t know the answer, she’d go find out and then come and tell me. So that way we both know. And I did that with my kids which I dunno if you ever got that ad up in Queensland or anywhere else in Australia with the Telstra ad. With the rabbits. Nazi emper. Nazi Goring built the Great Wall of China to keep the rabbits out. Oh yes, yes.

(01:11:23):
That came out when my daughter was in high school. I think she was in year nine or something. And she came home one day and came in, gave me a big hug and I went, what’s wrong? She goes, thank you. Said thank you for what? And she said, you never ever sent me to school with that kind of information in my head. She said, someone stood up today and said something, the stupidest thing in the world. My dad told me <laugh>. And it was something similar to that. I said, I don’t want you to go to school like an idiot. Cause that makes me look like an idiot for a start. And what’s the point of giving someone bad, bad information, bad intelligence. If you’ve ever watched Team America, bad intelligence, I think if something, share it and then see what comes of it. I’ll say something and then someone else will go, oh yeah, but did you know blah blah blah.

(01:12:20):
Oh no I didn’t. But now I do. Now I wanna find out more. But yeah, why? Cause I can, because it’s all sitting up there and I think you should know. I mean with Cyclone, I thought the more I got to know these guys, the more enthralled in the story. And I said to him, everyone has to know this because it’s a great cracking. Good story. It is. It’s a really, really good story. It was Thelen Lawson thing. I did that because yeah, people had to know, I mean Gera ghost that. That’s another one that I doubt that I’ve done. Which is about it. It’s a true story about a haunting in the town of Gera in 1921. And I started to read about it. I thought, wow, this is great. And then I started really getting into it. There’s a book here and I wrote in an article which went into Monster Magazine, which was a magazine I was writing for about the making of the movie.

(01:13:19):
Cuz this was AOL guys haunting in Gera, right? Things were getting thrown on the roof, the walls were shaking and getting banged on. All kinds of weird stuff was going on. And in the middle of it, this larger than life filmmaker hopped on a train in Sydney, went over to Gera, took his own ghost with him, like a guy in a sheet who got drunk on the train, <laugh> went off the train and this is what got me in. Got off the train and walked over to the house gathering people behind him like a pied piper with this guy wearing a sheet going three wind banged on the door. And when this is in the middle of all this whole thing and went, I wanna make a movie here about what’s going on. And did, he made a movie about the GA ghost in the actual house where the haunting was happening using the family that it was happening too. And that was me. What I’m, I’m hooked. So then I started researching, oh man, there’s more into this than what you’d have to read the book. There’s more in this than what you’d ever know.

Leigh Chalker (01:14:32):
That’s cool.

Daniel Best (01:14:33):
Justifi. What my payoff of that one when I published it, literally, it’s gonna sound weird. Literally every person in Gera bought a copy and people who were related to the family contacted me and said, oh, one woman said, I found out more about my father reading your book than what I’ve ever known. And I went, cause when she said, that’s my father you wrote about, I said, how much is this book gonna cost me? And I went, nothing. It’s your story. I did it just sent her a copy. I said, you haven’t signed it, done. You don’t pay me anything. And she said, when she said that, I was almost in tears. I thought then that’s why when you can do something that has an impact like that on a person and has an impact on people where other people were messaging me and say, oh people walk down the street here and we’re all talking about your book, man, look, my minor celebrity, Gora great beings, being big in Japan, I’m quite happy with that. <laugh>,

Leigh Chalker (01:15:35):
You’ll have a bronze statue up there mate, like hand on

Daniel Best (01:15:39):
Hip and oh God, I hope not. <laugh>

Leigh Chalker (01:15:42):
Walk out with,

Daniel Best (01:15:47):
When you get stuff like that, you just go, yeah. And that’s why when I can have someone contact me and say that they learn more about their family through my research than what they’d learned from their family. I just think, yeah, that’s why. Cause you can do that. So that’s why, cuz you get this knowledge, you learn something and the whole idea of it is pass it on. What did your teachers do in school? They knew stuff they taught you. And for right or wrong, some teachers, you probably think I’ve learned nothing from that person in a way you did because you sit there go, I learn nothing from them. So I learn that there was nothing to gets from them. And other teachers that, and other people, you learn, you meet through your life, you learn things and you take from them and you go, right, this what’s making me up.

(01:16:40):
It’s all of this knowledge that’s coming into me. And after a while you have to let that knowledge out and go, let it free into the world. Let someone else grab it. I would hope that someone else would read some of the stuff I’ve done or listen when I do one of these, a speech or something and go, I’ve gotta go learn more about this. And if I get that brilliant, absolutely brilliant. If I get someone coming up and going, cuz I know I’ve done it, I, I’ve met authors that I’ve gone, I’ve read what you did and I’ve messaged people and go, I’ve read what you did. And that changed me and that made me want to go and do something else. And it changed my direction of what I was working on. And some of them go, ah, thanks. And others go, yeah mate, great. That’s exactly what I was aiming at. Go. That’s what I’m aiming at as well. That’s why

Leigh Chalker (01:17:32):
Mate, I don’t think that also

Daniel Best (01:17:33):
Because you are, and also because you are pretty thick, if I don’t tell you these things, you’ll never know <laugh>.

Leigh Chalker (01:17:42):
It’s lovely answer man. Because it’s like, it’s a dose of positivity too, mate. You can And that’s that’s the only thing that’s stopping people sometimes, isn’t it? Cuz they think they can’t where it’s

Daniel Best (01:17:55):
Like anyone can write otherwise you can write, people are gonna be, I can’t write you. Can you tell a story? Yep. Well then you can write because all you writing is telling that story and putting words on a piece of paper, on a page, doesn’t matter how you do it. And even now, I mean you can fire up your Microsoft Word, plug this thing in and just talk to it and it will type it up for you. So if you can tell a story you can write. Yeah. So there’s nothing stopping you. It’s like anyone can draw. I mean you send my efforts, they’re really, really bad.

Leigh Chalker (01:18:28):
Oh, that was pretty good the other night, man, that phantom, I saw that. I thought you were

Daniel Best (01:18:33):
Going alright. Oh please. But anyone can do anything in this world. It’s just some people are better at it than others. And that’s all it comes down to. I mean I, I can’t draw as well as you, but then you probably can’t draw as well as say Bill Senkovich. But then Bill Senkovich probably would sit there and go, he couldn’t draw as well as what Salvador Darling did. So it’s all in degrees, it doesn’t matter <affirmative>. So when people say I can’t write, they go, well what are you comparing yourself to? Well look at Stephen King. Well don’t bother Stephen King starter somewhere. At some point he put down on a piece of paper, oh, I’m Stephen King and oh crap, that’s fine. We all do it. We all start somewhere. So what’s stopping? You got a story to tell it.

Leigh Chalker (01:19:24):
Yeah, I think that’s great mate. I think that’s great advice. As I said, positivity mate. That’s what I like. And I think more people should be creative and write things down and

Daniel Best (01:19:37):
Take

Leigh Chalker (01:19:38):
Your words of advice. Be passionate about things mate. Find something you’re interested in and hit the typewriter, the keyboard, the the recording button. Just sometimes it’s just start man

Daniel Best (01:19:53):
Tech technology is your friend. Now, I mean I think I said this earlier I don’t know if we’re on here or not. If I had half of this stuff now that I’ve got now, back when I first started, oh God, would my life have been easier? Yes. Would I have written more? Oh yeah. But I started out on an old 1960s typewriter and then the electric typewriter and then an old, well it wasn’t old at the time, it a she and laptop, which weighed a ton and wasn’t really a laptop, a battery life of 10 seconds. And then worked my way up until I, and I always knew at one point I was gonna find a machine. I didn’t know what I wanted it to do, but I wanted it to be what I wanted it to do, which was to make my life easier when it comes to putting ideas down. And I’m at that point now because I can plug this in and just talk to it. I can write go as fast as for, cuz I’m a amazingly fast typist with these two figures. I’m not giving you duty, duty symbols here, but these two figures, these six at times, I can go light speed.

(01:21:09):
And it’s only been in the last few years that I’ve actually found a keyboard and a laptop that can keep up. I mean, the laptop I’ve got now is actually quite expensive because we had a payout coming and when we got it, I said, you first thing, I’m not buying any more of these $800 laptops that we have to throw in the bin and I wanna spend about two and a half, three grand on one. Okay, well we’ve got it, let’s do it. Did bang, still got it going great. And I just think, yeah, that’s it. Buy the technology and do it. So if you’re serious about it, invest Yeah. And just do it. Put your head down, not otherwise, you’re just gonna be working nine to five and fine if you wanna do that. If you think, I don’t wanna write, I don’t wanna draw, I don’t wanna create, make music. I mean, I’m the world’s worst musician, but it doesn’t stop me from having two guitars sort of pick up and just plunk away and annoy the hell out of everyone at the house because I like the sound I don’t get when I’ve play it. I think, man, Eddie Van Haer would’ve loved this and any way he probably would’ve Bill. Oh, Dave Dye, you don’t even Dave die can’t pronounce his own name. It’s actually pronounced Dave d Dave d, not Dye D.

Leigh Chalker (01:22:25):
Oh, I’m sure there’ll be a comment. Come flying back here. <laugh>.

Daniel Best (01:22:31):
Is Dave still doing up, isn’t it Passings bedtime?

Leigh Chalker (01:22:34):
No, no. Dave Dave’s a champion.

Daniel Best (01:22:38):
Dave’s a lovely guy. I loving the bits.

Leigh Chalker (01:22:41):
Terrific. One of the best dude I’ve met doing I,

Daniel Best (01:22:45):
If he wants to draw part of the Emmy war that I’m working on. But you <laugh>,

Leigh Chalker (01:22:50):
See, look at the interesting things that you are doing and getting.

Daniel Best (01:22:55):
I wanna do a story about the emu wars, but I’m telling it from the view of the <inaudible>.

Leigh Chalker (01:23:01):
Ah, <laugh>, right? There you go.

Daniel Best (01:23:04):
Yeah. And there stuff. Yeah, go for it. Yeah.

Leigh Chalker (01:23:11):
I guess what as we’ll start to wind down one of the questions that I always like to ask people so they can give their advice to any of the viewers that are listening and <laugh> advice.

Daniel Best (01:23:33):
Glad you can’t get punch me in the head, <laugh>,

Leigh Chalker (01:23:38):
What’s one piece of advice, possibly two pieces of advice that on your journey and talking to so many creators and different people out and about that sticks in your mind that you could pass on to someone that maybe out there mate,

Daniel Best (01:24:00):
There’s a few. There’s a few. And the little bits, pearls of wisdom I picked up along the way. One was a line that was Dave Allen Freeman used to say, which was Tell the truth until it bleeds. And I’ve always gone with that one. Another one I can’t remember, you said this one was just because someone says you suck doesn’t mean that you don’t. But also when it comes to that, always be open for your criticism, but try and get the criticism and turn it into a constructive positive one. When someone, and I’ve had this, so God, you suck. That book is crap. Okay, why is it crap? Why does it suck? Why do I suck? What have I done? And they can’t come up with it and think, I ignore it, forget it, don’t wanna hear it. Where if you come up and go, look, that book was full of inaccuracies or that book didn’t, it didn’t cover this and didn’t cover that.

(01:25:05):
Okay, well I’m taking it on board and I’ll take it. So, you know, look at that. But I suppose the one thing, and this is something which that I would go, if you could go back and talk to your 10 year old self I mean, there’d be several things I’d tell me, but one of the things I would tell me is don’t give up <affirmative>, just give up. Just because someone says something bad, don’t stop doing it. Just keep going. Yeah. Just because someone says you suck doesn’t mean you don’t, but it doesn’t mean you can’t improve. Doesn’t mean you’re gonna suck forever. Doesn’t mean you’re gonna be crap for the rest of your life. Just keep at it and keep pumping at it. Improve your craft the more you do something. I mean that theory of the, I think it’s 10,000 hours <affirmative>, that one. Yeah,

Leigh Chalker (01:25:59):
I’ve heard that. Yes,

Daniel Best (01:26:00):
Yes. So sit there and go, just keep going. I mean, my classic example is Eddie Van Halen. I love Van ha, I still miss the guy. I love him. Met him once. He was <laugh>. It was so funny, it wasn’t funny. But I always say to him, he picked up, at one point, he picked up a guitar and went and it just made it the Pauling sound and it made it the Pauling sound for a fairly long while. And then at some point he could play chords and then at some point he could play little lead thing and then at some point he could start doing and doing all these things because he practiced at it. He didn’t give up, he didn’t stop. He just kept going. See, the more you practice your art, the better you will get. No matter what that art is. I always sit there and say, every piece of work I do, writing is better than the last one. And that’s what I aim for. Everything’s gonna be better than the last one. And when I hit that point, and I will hit that point, I know I’m gonna hit that point where I go, I can’t improve this, I’ll stop. Yeah. Because there’ll be no point going on because they’ve reached that peak despite the fact my niece actually asked me the other week, when did you,

Leigh Chalker (01:27:18):
Yeah, M

Daniel Best (01:27:24):
Curious. He’s not peaked

(01:27:29):
Around the table. And everyone was going, what the hell are you? So yeah, just keep at it, keep going. If someone says you can’t draw, okay, sorry, sorry, Chaka you, you crap. Because I’m looking at Norman Rockwell, okay, well fine, stop comparing me to Rockwell and start looking at what I’m doing. So with me, don’t compare me to Colin Wilson, which is a peak I’d love to get near, or Nick tos is a peak I’d love to get near. I know I never will. Don’t compare me to them. Look at my work on its own merit. Don’t compare it to someone else unless I’m doing exactly the same as what they did, then you could compare it. But if I’m not, no. So as an artist, I’d sit there and go, if you are not drawing the exact same story as what someone else is drawing, you can’t compare it to that other person.

(01:28:24):
I mean, if you are just drawing one Spiderman, sure you can compare that Spiderman post to everyone that’s drawn it and you’ll probably find you are lacking because you’re not Steve Dico, you’re not to farland you, you’re not John Burn, you’re not Neil Adams or L Weiss, someone like that. That’s fine. But it doesn’t mean you can’t get to that point. Just keep going, don’t stop. And if you do decide, okay, you reach a point, you go, it’s not happening for me. Doesn’t mean that something else won’t happen for you. If you can’t write, if you think, oh no, my writing is bad, go do something else.

(01:29:04):
Go draw. Go pick up a guitar, pick up a piano. I would put dollars and do marks that someone like Ivan Halen that if you said to him, write a book, he’d go, <laugh>, draw a picture. And it probably would’ve been worse than my phantom picture, but I’ll tell you what, we’ll practice for the rest of our lives and not get anywhere near that. But then he’d probably sit there and go, I could practice for the rest of my life and not get anywhere near what you are doing. And that’s the key. Find your little niche, find your lane way. You don’t have to stay in your lane way forever. You can go outside of your lane way and move into something else and do other things. But when you find your lane way, keep working at your lane way to be the best you can be.

(01:29:49):
And when you’ve hit that point, just keep going. Because no matter how good you think you are, and this is something that I always say to people will tell you that you are bad and maybe you shouldn’t listen to them. I don’t know. The opposite is you shouldn’t really listen when they tell you that you’re really, really good because that’s just as D someone go, man, that’s brilliant. You’re great. You’re the best thing. Since Slice bread is just as bad for you as when someone says you are the worst thing on the planet. Because if you think that you are really, really good, no, you’re probably not. So just take it all on board and just keep striving to improve yourself. If you take it on board that you think you’re the best you’re ever gonna be, then you won’t work at improving. And you don’t be afraid to bin stuff.

(01:30:46):
I mean, I have deleted so many books, it’s not funny. I have worked on stuff and written full on books and all kinds of things. I thought, no one’s gotta read this. And I’ve read it back, I go, oh God, I still wanna throw out all the stuff I did back in the nineties, nearly two thousands. And Linda won’t let me. She goes, no, no. Every time we have a clean out go, it’s going in the bin. No it’s not. But I hate it. It’s horrible. It’s not anywhere representative. But what I am now, I wish I could go back and write it all again, but I don’t want to <affirmative>. So don’t be afraid to, I suppose, kill your darlings in that regard. If it’s not happening, just move on. Go find something that is happening. Yeah, there’s no shame in, there’s no shame in it.

(01:31:35):
There’s no shame in just, and I wanna say, I don’t wanna say there’s no shame in giving up because there is a shame in giving up, but there’s no shame in saying, this isn’t working for me. I’m gonna do something else. Giving up and saying That’s not working, that’s it. I’m not gonna do anything. That’s the shame. Just go find something that is working and when you’ve hit it, just keep going. And to be the best you can be, never give a rock. Yeah, you could play Miras, be the van Ho of Miras, why not? You know, can pick it and just keep going with it. With me, it’s it. I happen to have a way with words. I happen to have a way of putting words on paper that people seem to, and I happen to have a way of being able to speak and being glib.

(01:32:20):
And that wasn’t come overnight that I had to work at. I had to really go through a lot of work to get to that point. I have a way of telling a story and that’s fine. I work at it, I work at it constantly. Everywhere I go, people will tell you the amount of times, oh man, well you, that’s because I’ll just keep going. And with my writing, people seem to enjoy it. They like it, they tell me they like it. I take it on board, I say, thank you very much. I really appreciate that. I do. I appreciate. And that’s the other one, don’t ever be afraid to tell someone that you like this stuff because you never know that you might get ’em on a day where they’re really, really flat down and just having someone reach out and go, mate loves it. Really, really enjoyed it, meant something great, it just lifts you up. So yeah, just do it. Doesn’t matter who you are or what you do. Yeah. Unless of course you are, you’re a serial killer. And then maybe you shouldn’t be working and improving your art.

Leigh Chalker (01:33:22):
Yeah, yeah. Find out more about Australian Common Book, serial Killers in

Daniel Best (01:33:27):
Daniel Best. He wasn’t a serial killer.

Leigh Chalker (01:33:30):
Well

Daniel Best (01:33:33):
That the definition of the word, he was not a serial killer. That was probably the only thing about it.

Leigh Chalker (01:33:39):
<laugh>. Oh, you gave it up like, oh <laugh>. It

Daniel Best (01:33:45):
Was a horrible,

Leigh Chalker (01:33:46):
I’ve loved having you on tonight. as always, I enjoy our conversations immensely, man.

Daniel Best (01:33:53):
Often.

Leigh Chalker (01:33:55):
Yeah, no it’s great. I, I think with this show is the positive energy that you can give to people and things like you just said of never give up and just trying to keep getting better and stuff like that. And that’s all we can really do, man. And that’s what any of us hopefully would strive for. But mate, I’ll let you have one more. Where can anyone get your books from and stuff like that? And we’ll wind her up.

Daniel Best (01:34:28):
You can find me on social media. You can type my name into Facebook and I’ll probably pop up. I’ve got a head like a cracked bottle. It’s leaking of certain fluids, so it’s pretty distinctive. I’m also on Twitter and funnily enough, I’m one of the few people on Twitter that actually uses my go figure. And if you type my name into Amazon you’ll find my stuff there as well. I’ve also got a blog which is called oh God what’s it called? 20th Century Danny Boy. Yeah, 20th Century Danny Boy, which was named shit, it’s funny, it’s named because one of my favorite songs growing up was it’s 20th Century Boy.

Leigh Chalker (01:35:13):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Daniel Best (01:35:15):
And because of my name you’d always, every time I’d go to a party with drunk Irish, a certain drunk Irishman that used to be there, the parent of a friend of mine, you’d always, oh Daddy <laugh>. I combined them 20th Century Danny Boy. And on the blog I’ve got the links to where all the books are and links to my Facebook, all that. So if you type in 20th Century Danny, boy, it’ll probably come up. You can probably get me that way easily enough. But yeah, I wonder what happened to aie. But anyway.

Leigh Chalker (01:35:51):
Well that’s ripped man. Thank you very much for tonight, Dan.

Daniel Best (01:35:55):
Thank you. Thank you for having

Leigh Chalker (01:35:56):
Me. I’m glad. Great. I enjoyed that immensely and

Daniel Best (01:35:59):
Appreciate it.

Leigh Chalker (01:36:00):
Yeah, I mate. Alright, so thank you everyone for watching and stuff. Thank you to Shane from the Comics Network. Be aware that Friday night drinking draws coming up with Peter Lane and everyone’s drawing skeletal Monday nights, there’s the Aussie <crosstalk>,

Daniel Best (01:36:17):
I’m not

Leigh Chalker (01:36:18):
With Roth. And what else? We got me here again with Tuesday Chinwag, next Tuesday obviously. And next week’s guest is Mr. Gary er. So I’m very much looking forward to that as well. Alright, well thank you very much and everyone out there stay safe reach out to people, make sure they’re all going well. And community is unity. Thank you very much. See ya.

Voice Over (01:36:46):
This show is sponsored by the ComX shop. Check out comx.cx for all things comics and find out what comics is all about. Then head over to comx.shop to pick up a variety of Australian comics from multiple creators and publishers. All for one flat postage rate. And don’t forget to check out the comx channel on YouTube.

Daniel Best

Main Guest

Daniel Best

Guests List

Transcription Below

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